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Willigot T. Odhner is granted a patent for a calculating machine that performs multiplications with repeated additions. The patent is a modified and compact version of the Gottfried von Leibniz stepped wheel.

Team leader Reynold B. Johnson presents the first prototype magnetic cylinder memory hard disk drive at IBM[1]. IBM would then condition this device, and on September 4 1956, The IBM 350 would be introduced [2]. It would then be put into the 305 RAMAC (Random Access Method of Accounting and Control), which was introduced on September 13, 1956 - Along with the IBM 355 and . RAMAC holds 5MB of data on fifty 24-inch disks which spin at 1,200 rpm at a cost of about US$10,000 per megabyte. IBM leased the computers for US$3,200 per month.

MatriDigm Corporation files for three patents on technology to reconfigure corporate based computers for post year 2000 dating.
Maxtor Corporation announces the DiamondMax line of hard drives, featuring capacities of 5.1GB.

Bill Gates III and Steve Ballmer, donate US$20 million to Harvard University for the purpose of building a computer sciences center. Twenty years prior, Gates dropped out of Harvard to found Microsoft. The name of the new facility will be “Maxwell Dworkin” in the honor of Beatrice Dworkin Ballmer and Mary Maxwell Gates, the donors’ mothers.

IBM introduces the Aptiva personal computer, featuring a IBM 300 Performance MMX processor, 32MB RAM, a 3.2 GB hard drive, a 24x CD-ROM drive, a modem, and the Lotus SmartSuite. IBM is the first major American computer maker to release a computer for less than US$600. US$599

The Wall Street Journal reports that a software “glitch” related to the implementation of a new mutual-fund system at the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASDAQ) is causing incorrect information to be released related to daily changes in some mutual funds’ net asset values.

Because of the satellite launch of STS-95, ATSC HDTV starts broadcasting (Advanced Television Systems Committee)

Brad Silverberg leaves Microsoft, after nine years. He has served as vice president for the applications and the Internet client group. He also headed the team responsible for Windows 3.1 and Internet Explorer.